To not want a stranger at Christmas?

[Oneeyedreindeer]

My mother and brother were due to come to my house for Christmas. I am married with 3 DC, one of who is a young baby. Last week he randomly said he has a friend from abroad coming to stay for a month and if I don’t invite him he will be alone on Christmas Day.

i explained I don’t want a stranger there and it changes the dynamics with small children/breastfeeding etc. he is insisting I could meet the friend beforehand. He is like a dog with a bone and won’t drop it and keeps bringing it up/poor friend will he all alone etc etc. I’ve been clear that if he can’t come as he needs to be with his friend that’s fine and now I feel very mean indeed. But AIBU? I just think it would be very awkward indeed and I do also think there’s an element of my brother wanting to park up for some free/food drink with his friend - he suggested bringing his games consoles “for DC to play” although DC are 4 and under.

I don’t think she did any cooking etc did she though? No toddlers to wrangle either?

pictures suggest she did breastfeed though

Although the wise men et Al brought gifts and not games consoles

KettrickenSmiled

Two male friends having Christmas alone seems quite sad.

Why?

deti.mail.ru/article/blyuda-hity-sovetskogo-detskogo-sada/

😁

She didn't host them you virtue-signalling loon! Like OP, Mary was busy with a breastfed baby, & the 3WM & the AG rocked up with gifts, did some praising, then fecked off again sharpish. I don't think anybody was breaking out the turkey & day-long small talk.

And we'd have had some form of 'xmas' ie midwinter festival whatever Mary had done. Including giving the Angel Gabriel a sharp "no way, no Sirree, I do not consent to your immaculate conception! - plus, immaculate my arse, do you think I haven't heard that one before?" 9 months previously.

Because we were celebrating this season with whatever feasting we could afford to lay out grubby little pagan hands on millennia before Christians came along. With their womb-appropriation weirdness & sex-selective #BeKind bullshit.

😂😂😂😂Outstanding! No is a complete sentence & all that 😍

[obtains popcorn, awaits slew of defences for DB's Boxing Day non-hosting]

But - have you told him he's mean yet OP?
#BeKind DB

^^

Yeah nip it in the bud OP.

My mother has a habit of collecting waifs and strays leading up to Christmas (in her case largely miserable lonely older women who drink too much) and it is a massively different dynamic to see the faces of strangers around the table at Christmas especially as most of them don't help out, drink all the booze and generally complain about everything. Hence mum and dad don't get hosted so often as she refuses to come without her collection of charity cases that I have to feed and water.

I don't think sending her DC round unsupervised was any part of OP's plan though?

Even without DM, there'd be a more that 1 on 1 adult to child ratio, if DB friend wants to hang out & meet them, And 1 on 1 precisely if friend preferred to go out & do his own thing.

Unless! OP is sending them on their own to get a start made on the cooking, as obviously that's not something their uncle is prepared to do. They'd probably be more competent & unselfish.

How can you say she had a seemingly useless bastard of a husband?

He took on the responsibility of a child he hadn't fathered - have you any idea how huge a thing that was in that culture (and would be even today)?

He spent Jesus' early years fleeing from danger, uprooting his family and relocating them in a safer place until Herod Antipas had finally popped his clogs, then brought them all back so that Jesus could be brought up among members of his own extended family in their village (and also fulfil what was spoken by the prophets). Joseph was far from a "useless bastard".

If he hadn't agreed to marry her, she could have been dragged before a court (a betrothal was a binding contract). If found guilty of breaking it she could have been sentenced to death by stoning or even burning.

If she hadn't been sentenced to death pressure would have been put on her family to disown her - she could have ended up as a beggar or a prostitute - or to sell her and her child into slavery.

Jesus, as a "mamzer" would never have been allowed to worship with the company of the Lord in the Temple, let alone fulfil the prophecies.

Joseph put his own hopes and dreams aside to look after Mary.

Leave the lad alone!

He replied no in less than 30 seconds 😆

I love this post

Although the wise men et Al brought gifts and not games consoles

According to all the adverts on the radio, gold prices are at an all-time high - throw a few hints out.

At least you know he gave it plenty of thought before he answered.

Tell him that neither he nor his friend can come. Your home is too dangerous for adult children.

Yes I’m sure that’s exactly how it went

Well she will have breast fed. Could hardly nip to the Co-Op for SMA

No I wouldn't be happy with this. Your brother and his friend will have to spend the day together at his house

I actually love this thread. It’s my favourite Christmas thread so far. It’s got everything! #BeKind, Chinese boyfriends, OP being turned into a volunteer Deliveroo driver and to top it all off a FIERCE defence of Joseph the Carpenter.

Brilliant

Thank you. I have actually really enjoyed it as well and amazed by the amount of responses and it’s been great having my gut feelings solidified by reading some of the hilarious and insane suggestions on here of how to ruin my Christmas by doing accommodating gymnastics so my brother has to do nothing

I’ve also really enjoyed people assuming my brother must be a teenager/student.

tbh I’m starting to root for him and his friend too

I'm waiting in anxious trepidation for 'Christmas fridge'.

Turned into a proper bun-fight the last twice, that one did ...

@Emotionalsupportviper maybe I have been a little unfair on Joseph. I have read and reflected. He was a good lad on the whole. I just know that if I had been 9+ months pregnant, put on a donkey for 12 hours in the middle of winter, to be then told no reservations had been made at the Inn, useless bastard would be one of the kinder terms of endearment used that night.

😂😂😂

Great tread. For all the "if you visited a family in china/brazil/mars you would be made welcome.given the family silver and get to slaughter the turkey as it's an honour" just remember we're British known for being reserved, stuff upper lipped etc.
there is no.way on gods green earth would I want to spend Christmas day in my own home unable to relax cos I would never expect a guest to serve themselves, pour their own drink. I would tell family to just tuck in.
plus it's a strange man, op is breastfeeding so would have to get up every time.

plus if here brother is a moocher...then what's this guy who's invited himself for a month like?

tbh I’m starting to root for him and his friend too 😂😂😍
And ... .DARVO! BINGO!!

IKWYM OP. I want to meet DB's friend now. DB ..? Not so much, go figure.

I offer fine line in arsekicking services to the gentry though, should you want to (cough cough) invite me for xmas.
OR ARE YOU PREPARED TO LEAVE ME AllAloneTM YOU SELFISH BABY?

Want to bet your DB has already told his friend that they're going to yours to be fed?

😂😂😂

It’s never that easy to change your role within a family and I have had a lot of support on here!